Considerations on COM(2017)215 - EU position in the annual Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Pollock Resources in the Central Bering Sea

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dossier COM(2017)215 - EU position in the annual Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Pollock ...
document COM(2017)215 EN
date May  8, 2017
 
(1) Article 38 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in conjunction with Article 39(1)(d) thereof, provides that one of the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy is to assure the availability of supplies.

(2) Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council 4 provides that the Common Fisheries Policy shall ensure that fishing and aquaculture activities are environmentally sustainable in the long-term and are managed in a way that is consistent with the objectives of achieving economic, social and employment benefits, and of contributing to the availability of food supplies. It also provides that the Union shall apply the precautionary approach to fisheries management, and shall aim to ensure that exploitation of living marine biological resources restores and maintains population of harvested species above levels which can produce the maximum sustainable yield. It also provides that the Union shall aim to take management and conservation measures based on best available scientific advice, to promote fishing methods that contribute to more selective fishing and the avoidance and reduction, as far as possible, of unwanted catches, to fish with low impact on the marine ecosystem and fishery resources and to gradually eliminate discards. Besides, Article 28 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 specifically provides that these principles shall be applied by the Union in its external policy.

(3) Poland is a Contracting Party to the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Pollock Resources in the Central Bering Sea (hereinafter 'the Bering Sea Convention'). The Union is not a Party to that Convention. In accordance with Article 6(9) of the Accession act 5 , fisheries agreements concluded by the new Member States with third countries are managed by the Union and the Union should implement any decisions established under the Convention.

(4) Council Decision 7277/16 of 11 April 2016 authorised the Republic of Poland to negotiate, in the interest of the Union, an amendment to the Bering Sea Convention with a view for the Union to becoming a contracting party to that Convention. That mandate is currently being implemented. It is understood that upon the acceptance of the Union as a full contracting party to the Bering Sea Convention, the Republic of Poland will withdraw its membership from the Convention.

(5) On 10 July 2012, the Council adopted Decision 11724/12 establishing the position to be adopted on behalf of the European Union in the framework of the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Pollock Resources in the Central Bering Sea.

(6) Decision 11724/12 provides that the position established therein is to be reviewed at the latest for the Annual Conference of the Parties to the Bering Sea Convention in 2016. It is therefore appropriate to repeal Decision 11724/12 and to replace it by a new Decision.

(7) In view of the evolving nature of Pollock resources in the Bering Sea Convention Area and the consequent need for the position of the Union to take account of new developments, including new statistical, biological and other information presented before or during the Annual Conference of the Parties, procedures must be established, in line with the principle of sincere cooperation among the Union institutions enshrined in Article 13(2) TEU, for the year-to-year specification of the Union position.

(8) The EU not being a party to the Bering Sea Convention, the Republic of Poland, represents the EU at the annual Conference of the Parties to the Bering Sea Convention. Therefore, this Decision is addressed to the Republic of Poland.

(9) Upon accession of the EU to the Bering Sea Convention, the Commission, in accordance with Articles 218 and 3(1) TFEU, shall represent the EU in the annual Conference of the Parties to the Bering Sea Convention. Therefore, from that moment this Decision shall be addressed to the Commission.